Payne saw the glint of metal in time to push Diane aside before the gun went off, but the stalker had poor aim. To his horror the bullet struck Diane in her lower back before he could knock the lunatic to the ground. The horrific experience had changed all their lives.
Diane had clung to him all the way to the hospital. In the fear that she was going to die, she’d told him how much she needed him, how much she’d always loved him.
He’d had no idea of her deep feelings for him. He’d never been interested in her that way, but at that point it didn’t matter because he couldn’t have abandoned her in the state she was in.
Several months later she still couldn’t walk though she retained some feeling in her legs. The doctors told her they’d done all they could do and suggested she go to a clinic in Switzerland reputed to have success with her kind of spinal injury.
Afraid of failure, Diane had flatly refused to consider it and wouldn’t be consoled. At that point Payne took stock of his life and decided that if he proposed marriage, she might be more inclined to get the help she needed.
But after their engagement was announced, she seemed to retreat further into herself, unwilling to discuss going to Switzerland. Worse, she’d developed an almost irrational fear of the two of them being shot again.
In order to reassure her, Payne had made certain new security measures had been added to protect her and the Wylies as well as everyone on the Sterling estate. His fiancée now had twenty-four-hour protection.
As for Payne, four security men accompanied him wherever he went on business. A helicopter took him to his office in Manhattan. If he had to fly overseas, he used his private jet. When he had to drive somewhere on Long Island, one of the security men chauffeured him in a bulletproof limousine with one-way glass windows.
En route to the used bookstore in Oyster Bay, he handed the novel to the retired Navy SEAL, Mac, who’d been his personal bodyguard for the last three years.
“What do you make of this?”
Mac took one look and whistled. His gray eyes darted to Payne in puzzlement before he gave it back to him. “How come you’re on the cover?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
While the driver looked for Candle Glow Books, Payne opened the novel to the copyright page.
Red Rose Romance Publishers, Inc., Second Avenue, New York, New York.
His eyes narrowed. He’d never heard of it, but that location was east of Central Park near the Turtle Bay Grill where he often met with overseas clients.
It appeared the book had been published two months ago.
That meant whatever party was responsible for his picture being on the cover had possessed knowledge of him long before the publication date. Most publishing houses had up to three or more years of books waiting to go to press.
There was a disclaimer.
Any characters, names or incidents in this book do not exist outside the mind of the author.
Like hell!
A grimace marred Payne’s features.
He turned the book over to read the blurb. By the time he’d digested the second sentence, his body had broken out in a cold sweat.
Secrets?
Powerful, dashing New York billionaire Logan Townsend, is hiding a painful secret from his fiancée and family.
“Good Lord,” he whispered.
When he’s involved in an accident in the Canyonlands of the American West, Dr. Maggie Osborn discovers what that secret is.
Unbeknownst to him, she puts her life in danger to save his.
But secrets have a way of getting out.
It isn’t until Logan returns to New York that he learns Maggie is keeping one from him.
On the verge of sealing the most vital merger of his existence, he’s torn between duty and desire.